The present invention relates to an improvement in a tiller including tillage tines and a fender disposed above the tillage tines to cover the same, and in particular to an improvement in a portion of the fender to be attached to an engine of the tiller.
Known tillers include rotor shafts having tillage tines provided thereon. Tillage operation is performed by rotation of the tillage tines. The rotation of the tines propels the tillers. The thus arranged tillers are popular because they are easy to operate and can make small sharp turns. Such tillers are often xe2x80x9cfront tine tillerxe2x80x9d and known from, for example, Japanese Utility Model Laid-Open Publication No. SHO 58-89431 entitled xe2x80x9cSTRUCTURE FOR PROTECTING CLUTCH LEVER OF TILLERxe2x80x9d and Japanese Patent Laid-Open Publication No. SHO 59-153669 entitled xe2x80x9cELECTRIC TILLERxe2x80x9d.
A tiller disclosed in the publication No. SHO 58-89431 includes an engine, a transmission case, a rotor shaft supported by the transmission case, and tillage rotors mounted on the rotor shaft. The case has a transmission mechanism disposed therein. Motive power of the engine is transmitted through the transmission mechanism to the rotor shaft. This causes the tillage rotors mounted on the rotor shaft to perform a tillage operation. The case has a fender mounted via bolts to an upper part thereof. The fender covers the rotors. Each bolt has a portion protruding downwardly from the fender.
Disclosed in the publication No. SHO 59-153669 is a tiller including an electric motor, and a rotor shaft case accommodating therein a transmission mechanism. Motive power of the electric motor is transmitted via the transmission mechanism to a rotor shaft supported by the rotor shaft case. The transmission of the motive power causes tillage tines mounted on the rotor shaft to perform a tillage operation. The rotor shaft case has a fender mounted to an upper part thereof by means of bolts. This arrangement allows the fender to cover the tillage tines. Each bolt has a portion projecting downwardly from the fender.
For the tiller of the publication No. SHO 58-89431, the tillage rotors under the tillage operation upwardly throw foreign objects such as small stones. Most of the objects strike the fender and thus fail to be thrown further upwardly. Some of the objects are directed to the bolts. These bolts are detached from or attached to the fender and the transmission case when the tiller undergoes maintenance operation. For easy and proper maintenance operation, it is important to provide sufficient durability of the bolts. For the disclosed tiller, however, foreign objects are highly likely to hit the bolts or to be caught or lodged between the bolts and the tillage rotors. Under such a condition, the bolts are made durable with difficulty.
To address this problem, one may propose to provide bolts having improved durability inherent therein. However, such inherently-highly-durable bolts are undesirably expensive. One may further propose to provide an additional cover for covering these bolts completely. Provision of the cover increases the number of components of the tiller. In addition, the tiller including such a cover is complicated in construction. It is thus troublesome to subject the tiller of complicated construction to maintenance operation. The tiller as disclosed in the publication No. SHO 59-153669 also suffers from the same problem as the tiller of the publication No. SHO 58-89431.
An object of the present invention is to provide a tiller having cheap or inexpensive bolts for attaching a fender to the tiller which are durable enough to ensure that maintenance operation is properly carried out on the tiller.
According to one aspect of the present invention, there is provided a tiller comprising: an engine for producing a motive power; a transmission case mounted to the engine, the transmission case having a transmission mechanism housed therein; a rotor shaft coupled to the transmission mechanism; tillage tines mounted on the rotor shaft, the transmission mechanism transmitting the motive power to the rotor shaft to cause the tillage tines to perform a tilling operation; a fender disposed above the tillage tines to cover the tillage tines; bolts mounting the fender to the transmission case therethrough, the bolts each having a portion projecting downwardly from the fender; and a guard member extending downwardly from at least one of the transmission case and the fender to a level lower than the downwardly projecting portion of each of the bolts, the guard member guarding the bolts against a foreign object thrown upwardly by the tillage tines under the tilling operation.
The guard member extends downwardly from at least one of the transmission case and the fender to a level lower than a portion of each bolt projecting downwardly from the fender. Provision of such a guard member makes it possible to guard the bolts against a foreign object which, after thrown up by the tillage tines, would be otherwise directed to the bolts. Foreign matters thrown up by the tillage tines under the tilling operation can be prevented from hitting the bolts or getting caught between the bolts and the tillage tines.
Accordingly, providing the guard member alone ensures that the bolts can be kept durable even if they are cheap ones. That is, it becomes possible to provide sufficient durability of the bolts without requiring additional components. The thus arranged tiller can properly undergo the maintenance operation.